Catching up on stuff

Well, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? Bundy-sama has been on another extended roadtrip for his job in Real Life(tm) and I’ve been....uhm....distracted by various other things, and neglecting the loyal readers of Fort Bundy. Sorry about that folks. I’m mulling over a solution to the dearth of updates, and if it works out, I’ll let the cat out of the bag. But now, onto the important stuff. I’ve had a good month to collect rant materials, so here they come..

About 3 weeks ago, ole Tot got a bellyfull of something to get him going, snapped, and wrote a rather long and pointed but not quite disrespectful letter to Valve software, asking that it please be passed around to the development team. I’m not going to disclose the actual contents of said missive, but lemme tell you, it was a humdinger. To my complete surprise, shock and and pleasure, only hours later that very day I got a response back form none other than Robin Walker himself. This pleased me, as being he is one of the 2 people there that truly was Team Fortress Software, before they joined Valve. This led to a coupla emails being tossed back and forth on the various subjects I brought up in my letter, including the state of bugfixing, the time it has been taking to see the results of said bugfixing, the effect of this delay on the morale of the TF community, and it’s flagging confidence in Valve, and that’s possible effects on their interest in TF2 - amoung other issues.

Now, I’m NOT going to itemize things in detail, and there are some things I cannot say. However, the feedback I got from Robin was EXTREMELY encouraging, as to what outstanding issues are going to be addressed. I’m not saying that everything was addressed to MY particular liking, mind you. But it was encouraging, definitely. I don’t have a firm date as to when we will see the patch, either - right now Valve doesn’t have one. They gave me a ballpark timeframe, depending on if everything goes right - and trust me, it’s not that much further now. If grouchy old Tot can have some patience in this matter, trust me, you can to.

As to the eternal question of WHY it’s taking so bloody long, I CAN provide some illumination on that, actually. The thing most people fail to realize, is that Valve is NOT like id Software. id is in the enviable position where they can dictate terms to their producer, Activision - and get away with it. Their track record allows them that bit of latitude. Valve, on the other hand, is bound MUCH more tightly to Sierra - as is the case with the vast majority of the other game developers in the business. And Sierra, in case you don’t know, is owned by Havas, which is a French corporation. So, not only does any product or update have to pass Valve’s QA, It then has to go to Sierra’s QA to be signed off on prior to release. In addition to the obvious trickle-down management hierarchy structure, is the importance that it placed on international releases with Sierra products.To quote Robin, "Halflife has US, Spanish, German, Italian, UK, French, and Korean versions." Now, follow my logic here, folks. The US/UK versions are essentially the same, but when you talk about the other version, you run into things like actual OS differences, Government regulations, and translations. For instance, to not be places on the "index" list in Germany, so they would not be prohibited from selling it on the shelf, and not being able to advertise it in magazines, etc - they had to substitute robots in place of the grunts, and you can’t shoot the scientists or barneys. In that version of TFC, the distinctive skins/models where replaced by the robot as well - so the only way you could tell, is colours and the weapons it’s carrying. Pain in the arse, huh? Translating the text is another challenge in itself. Any of you readers that are multilingual know that quite often there are NOT direct translations for everything. So they have to make sure all the menus read correctly, and yes, even those retarded signs you see in the levels have to be translated. Ensuring this is all done properly of course adds time to the development cycle, and has to be rechecked with every update. But it IS a requirement in Valve’s contract with Sierra, so it is a step that is required to be taken. And this can only be done after the patch is in "code lockdown".

Add to this, the impending E3, and the premiere of Half-Life for the Sega Dreamcast. Although Valve themselves are NOT doing the actual porting/development of it - Gearbox is - You know for damned sure they are still being consulted about it, so it is eating some portion of Valve’s time in providing some level of support for that project. To not assume so would be naive, IMNSHO.

So, what I’m saying is, yes it’s been a long time coming. Yes, we’ve still got a bit more to wait - but it’s not that much longer now. And I’m certain you’ll be presently surprised once it does make it out, trust me.

Well, I wanted to touch base on a coupla other issues as well in this update, but after working all night, I’ve plumb run out of steam. If I get the time later today, I’ll make another update, and touch on some community issues. I should have my review of the Q3F Beta1 done tonite, and have that available for your viewing displeasure tomorrow as well. Until then - what are you still doing here? Go go forth and frag !!